Grand
Prix of Turkey (Istanbul Otodrom) : 20-21 August 2005
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Grand
Prix of Turkey (Istanbul Otodrom) : 20-21 August 2005 |
Kimi
does it again in Turkey, Narain finishes 14th
There was good and bad news for McLaren in Istanbul. Once again the Finnish
national anthem rang out as Kimi Raikkonen stood on the top step of the podium
after he had taken victory at the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix with another
dominant performance.
Sadly for Raikkonen, all his efforts were for the most marginal gain. A mistake in the closing stages of the race by team mate Juan Pablo Montoya allowed Championship leader Fernando Alonso through to take second place - meaning that he carries a 24 point lead into the final five races of the season.
McLaren proved to be dominant on the demanding Istanbul circuit. Raikkonen lost his lead during the opening stages of the race as second-placed Giancarlo Fiscichella blazed through to lead from the start - but within two laps Fisi had run wide and Raikkonen was back in front. Fisichella then deferred to team mate Alonso, allowing the Spaniard past, but after both Renault made surprisingly early first stops, Raikkonen’s dominance of the race was assured.
After the second round of pitstops, Raikkonen and Montoya were running in first and second positions and looked set to finish in that order. But then cruel fate, in the form of Monteiro’s Jordan, stepped in - rear-ending Montoya’s McLaren after the Colombian had lapped him and spinning him in turn nine. Amazingly, Montoya managed to retain his position and rejoin in second place, but Alonso was right behind him and Montoya, suffering from what he later claimed to be a broken rear diffuser, ran wide into turn 8 and took a long detour through the run-off area - allowing the Spaniard past into second. Montoya rejoined to finish third, but his subdued behaviour on the podium told the story of a man denied.
Fisichella recovered from a fuel rig problem to bring home the second Renault in fourth place, with Jenson Button driving a determined race that took him from P13 on the grid to an eventual, well-deserved, fifth placed finish. Jarno Trulli’s usual strong qualifying performance had seen him start the race from fifth on the grid, a position he held through most of the race until losing out to Button at the final round of pit stops to come home sixth. David Coulthard and Christian Klien rounded off the points-scorers with another strong performance for Red Bull Racing, finishing in seventh and eighth respectively.
Istanbul proved to be another race that both Ferrari and Williams would rather forget. Barrichello struggled to get his Bridgestone-shod F2005 onto anything like the pace, ending the race in 10th place. And Michael Schumacher lost out heavily after a crash with Mark Webber that lost the Australian his front nose cone and span the current World Champion out and damaged his rear suspension. The Ferrari team managed to repair Schumacher’s car and he rejoined the race, staying out for long enough to improve his Monza qualifying slot over the other retirees and then coming back into the pits again.
Serious questions will be being asked by the Williams team after a spate of rear right tyre failures for Webber and Heidfeld – both drivers retiring after their second failures, with the luckless Webber now set to run first in qualifying at Monza in two weeks’ time.
** END **